"It's the Republican National Committee. They're calling to say thanks."

The papers are still going nuts over the prospect of a Bloomberg for President campaign, which the mayor swears is not going to happen. (But it might!) (And will!)

Both the Times and the Post shift into overdrive, reporting that Bloomberg's advisors have been planning a run for two years and speculating that his candidacy would draw votes away from the Democrats, which is almost certainly true: Are Republicans really going to pull the lever for a dope-smoking, vertically-challenged Hebrew from the capital of Godless America? Mike better get some platform shoes and marry up a cousin right quick.

Speaking of cousin-marriers, former mayor Rudy Giuliani quipped that "I was the first Republican elected mayor in New York City in 25 years, and I was the first one to remain Republican in 50 years and counting," which at least shows that Rudy remembers John Lindsay. While most people are making Ross Perot analogies, we're going to look a little further back for a historical parallel: In 1936, Louisiana Senator Huey Long had a plan to run an independent campaign against Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which would split the Democratic vote and let a Republican take the office. Huey figured that the Republicans would fuck up so badly that the 1940 Democratic nominee, i.e. Huey, would be a shoo-in. Long got shot before he could test the theory, but imagine if he had lived. And had billions of dollars. As we've said, we're not averse to the mayor, but if the cost of seeing him become president is four years of incompetence and folksy bullshit from Fred Thompson, it's a bill we don't wanna pay.